Dutch east: Did you mean...?

Artist's impression of Dutch explorers meeting a French ship near the coastline, with a port town and mountains in the background. Created by Amplitude Studios for the video game Humankind.

A map of European empires c. 1700. By the 18th century, European power had become truly global through a combination of maritime expansion, state-backed commerce, and military force. The leading Atlantic empires, Spain, Portugal, the Dutch...

From a humble beginning as a sweet treat grown in gardens, sugar cane cultivation became an economic powerhouse, and the growing demand for sugar stimulated the colonization of the New World by European powers, brought slavery to the forefront...

The British East India Company (EIC) was founded as a trading company in 1600. Run by a board of directors in London, the company employed a private army, first to protect the trade it conducted in the Indian subcontinent and then to expand...

Chart of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch discoveries in Australia by Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz (1581–1632).

Goa, located on the west coast of India, was a Portuguese colony from 1510 to 1961. The small coastal area was conquered by Afonso de Albuquerque (c. 1453-1515) and became an important trade hub for the Eastern spice trade. Goa was the capital...

William the Silent (l. 1533-1584, also known as William of Orange) was the leader of the Dutch Revolt (the Eighty Years' War) in the Netherlands; first politically (between 1559-1568) then militarily (between 1568-1584). He is among the most...

A 17th-century painting by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom showing English and Dutch galleons in combat in 1605. Both ships are typical of the Spanish galleon type. (National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam)

Dutch whalers off Spitsbergen, oil on canvas by Abraham Storck, c. 1690. Collectie Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam.

Battle between Dutch and Spanish ships on the Haarlemmermeer, 26 May 1573, oil on canvas by Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom, c. 1629. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.